Anna Karenina eBook

She said a few words to him, even smiled serenely
at his joke about the elections, which he called “our
parliament.” (She had to smile to show she saw
the joke.) But she turned away immediately to Princess
Marya Borissovna, and did not once glance at him till
he got up to go; then she looked at him, but evidently
only because it would be uncivil not to look at a man
when he is saying good-bye.

She was grateful to her father for saying nothing
to her about their meeting Vronsky, but she saw by
his special warmth to her after the visit during their
usual walk that he was pleased with her. She
was pleased with herself. She had not expected
she would have had the power, while keeping somewhere
in the bottom of her heart all the memories of her
old feeling for Vronsky, not only to seem but to be
perfectly indifferent and composed with him.

Levin flushed a great deal more than she when she
told him she had met Vronsky at Princess Marya Borissovna’s.
It was very hard for her to tell him this, but still
harder to go on speaking of the details of the meeting,
as he did not question her, but simply gazed at her
with a frown.

“I am very sorry you weren’t there,”
she said. “Not that you weren’t
in the room...I couldn’t have been so natural
in your presence...I am blushing now much more, much,
much more,” she said, blushing till the tears
came into her eyes. “But that you couldn’t
see through a crack.”

The truthful eyes told Levin that she was satisfied
with herself, and in spite of her blushing he was
quickly reassured and began questioning her, which
was all she wanted. When he had heard everything,
even to the detail that for the first second she could
not help flushing, but that afterwards she was just
as direct and as much at her ease as with any chance
acquaintance, Levin was quite happy again and said
he was glad of it, and would not now behave as stupidly
as he had done at the election, but would try the
first time he met Vronsky to be as friendly as possible.

“It’s so wretched to feel that there’s
a man almost an enemy whom it’s painful to meet,”
said Levin. “I’m very, very glad.”

Chapter 2

“Go, please, go then and call on the Bols,”
Kitty said to her husband, when he came in to see
her at eleven o’clock before going out.
“I know you are dining at the club; papa put
down your name. But what are you going to do
in the morning?”

“I am only going to Katavasov,” answered
Levin.

“Why so early?”

“He promised to introduce me to Metrov.
I wanted to talk to him about my work. He’s
a distinguished scientific man from Petersburg,”
said Levin.

“Yes; wasn’t it his article you were praising
so? Well, and after that?” said Kitty.